Amani Haydar's mother would be so proud of what her daughter has done in her 32 years of life. A dutiful and loving daughter, a mother herself, wife, lawyer, artist, women's rights advocate, and most importantly advocate for her own mother and siblings, after her father brutally and maniacally stabbed her mother to death. Because her mother wanted to leave, she wanted to have her own life, she wanted to continue the marvellous work she herself was doing for her Lebanese community. But no, her conservative Lebanese husband, Amani's father, did not want this.
This is a shockingly honest, raw and brilliant memoir of how this tragedy came to happen, and how Amani came to terms with it - her own father killing her mother. I can't even begin to imagine the horror of having to deal with such a terrible event. This is such an intimate account of a family life told first through the eyes of a child, on whom it slowly dawns that her family isn't quite as 'normal' as the other Lebanese families in their neighbourhood. There is an added curve ball in this mix - predominantly white Sydney/Australia loves a good ethnic/cultural minority violence story, and this one ticks all the boxes. How Amani comes out the other side of all this I really don't know. Her marriage is probably stronger than before, she is a loving and adoring mother of two small children, she is no longer a practising lawyer, but has found a perfect outlet for her intelligence, her courage and tenacity in her involvement with victims of what she is now calling domestic abuse rather than domestic violence.
Uplifting, honest, cathartic, a remarkable insight into one family's tragedy and a privilege to be allowed in. You can follow Amani on Instagram and see her beautiful art which has helped her in her grief, her coming to terms with what has happened, and her admirable strength. What a woman.
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